For years, lovers have been carving their initials in tree trunks,  stores have been leaving their advertisements on building sides, and inner-city kids have used subway walls as an outlet for everything from their frustrations to their artistic expressions.  Some of these marks are considered to be romantic gestures, and others are considered to be criminal tokens.

    Many of the inner-city images are not very happy images.  Graffiti artist Schmoo says this is because "most graffiti is done in the city.  The city isn't the happiest environment for an artist, especially if you have to sneak around to express yourself and face fines and jail for doing it."  Why do these artists face these risks?  They believe that their work was meant for public display and that such contemporary art forms are like improvisational theatre; they don't know what the outcome will be, but the expression is worth the risk to them.

Gang Graffiti
    It is a general stereotype that gangs produce the majority of city graffiti.  In fact, only about 10% is gang produced.  They use graffiti to mark their terrain so other gangs will know not to interfere.

History
    The first documented example of city graffiti was from New York in the early 1970's.  Someone wrote "Taki 183" on a subway car and started an international trend.  The history of graffiti is immeasurably long because many consider types of ancient art to be forms of graffiti, all the way back to cave wall drawings.